


In Every Lifetime

by amukmuk



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Major Character Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:34:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26622991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amukmuk/pseuds/amukmuk
Summary: Fox is injured and Riyo reminds him of his importance.
Relationships: Riyo Chuchi/CC-1010 | Fox
Comments: 25
Kudos: 121





	In Every Lifetime

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flyawaybluebird](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flyawaybluebird/gifts).



> From a tumblr prompt from Birdie: "We, the blankets and the pet have tangled into an irreversible knot on the couch and if no one comes save us this might be our end" for foxiyo. 
> 
> I must admit, I think the only things I took away from this prompt are the blanket and the tangling. I hope it is still okay!! <333

The sun is warm on his face. Light filters through the cracks of the blinds, illuminating the small particles of dust in the air. Blinking awake, he watches them dance until he hears a faint, “Hey.”

Suddenly aware that his left arm is nearly numb he looks down and sees  _ her _ . Riyo Chuchi, the woman of his dreams. Her hair curls around her bare blue shoulders and splays across the pillow in a sea of mauve. Her golden eyes dance like the rays of sunshine through the blinds and her lips turn up in the most breathtaking smile he has had the privilege of knowing, of memorizing. “Hey,” he breathes. 

“I think we fell asleep,” she murmurs, her voice is soft and warm like the blankets in which they are tangled. 

“Looks that way,” he returns, pressing a gentle kiss on her head. A slender blue hand emerges from underneath the blankets and strokes the stubble growing on his chin. 

“We should get up,” she whispers, pressing a kiss to his neck. 

“Or we could stay here,” he counters, rubbing his nearly numb hand down her back. Her skin is so smooth, like tranquil waters. 

Sitting up on her elbow, she looks at him. “You know that we can’t.”

“Why not?” He rubs a thumb over her chin, grazing those perfect, lilac lips. 

“Because you don’t belong here,” she murmurs. 

_ What _ ? 

He stutters, “What? What do you mean?” He can’t think of a place where he belongs  _ more _ than here, with her, in bed, sunshine warming their skin and exchanging languid kisses. 

“This isn’t real. Wake up.”

“Why are you saying these things?” He will  _ not _ cry in front of her. Absolutely not. 

“Fox,” she says. “Wake up.”

He awakes slowly and then all at once. People are yelling. Sirens are wailing. 

His arm is painfully numb. 

“We got a pulse!” 

The lights are so bright. His arm is numb. He can’t breathe. Riyo. Where is Riyo? He had checked the speeder. He had  _ checked _ . 

“Sir, you need to calm down,” a trooper he doesn’t recognize is hovering over him. 

“Ri-yo,” he barely gets out. His throat is incredibly sore, like he has swallowed a handful of needles. 

“We got her, sir. Stay with us,” he says. “We need you, sir.”

Everything goes black. 

~

The monitors beeping lull him awake and he couldn’t be more perturbed. He had been sleeping rather soundly. 

The world comes crashing back to him and he jolts awake. There had been an explosion. He’s in the medbay. Everything is white and sterile. Riyo. Where is Riyo?

He tries to get out of bed, and two hands hold his shoulders down. 

Thire. 

“Where’s Riyo?” Fox demands. “Where is she?” He repeats when Thire isn’t quick to give him an answer. 

“Upstairs, in a room.” 

Fox can’t breathe. “How is she?”

“Superficial wounds, mostly. You somehow managed to push her out of the blast zone fast enough before greater harm could come to her.”

Fox lets his head fall back. Thank whatever omnipotent force that had been watching over them. 

Thire clears his throat. “Fox, sir.”

Fox lolls his head over to the right - where Thire sits, fretting - and arches an eyebrow.

“I don’t want you to panic.”

His stomach immediately drops and he goes to push himself straighter. 

He is missing his left arm. 

He panics. 

From mid bicep down is nothing but air. 

Fox lets out a violent curse. 

“Fox, sir. Sir, you need to calm down. Fox, dammit!” Thire shouts and Fox finally pulls his eyes away from his bandaged stump and to his brother. 

“I’m going to get decommissioned,” Fox wheezes. 

“No. Your rank allows for you to get a prosthesis. I already talked to Chancellor Palpatine. You’re getting fitted at the end of the week.”

Fox’s heart stutters. He should be relieved. But… 

But how could Riyo want him… Like this? They finally decided to move forward with whatever feelings they had for each other and now… and  _ now _ . 

He swallows back a sob. 

His hands had roamed her body in the night, worshipping her in every way he could imagine. She had kissed the pads of each of his fingers and called him one of a kind.

“Sir. I know what you’re thinking and you need to cut that out. Everything is going to be just fine.”

Fox says nothing, but nods. 

~

The pain meds they have been giving him are heavy. He’s not certain if it is because the pain is  _ actually _ that bad, or if they want to keep him sedated until he gets his prosthetic. Some part of him wishes he would have just died and another part is grateful he was there, that it was him that got this life-altering injury. If it had been a lower ranked trooper, they  _ would _ have been decommissioned and that would have been another innocent brother lost to this stupid war. 

His medbay door opens and he rolls his head to the side, half expecting a medic, the other half expecting Thire with an update. He could have sworn that Thire already stopped by today, but the days have been bleeding together with the pain medication.

Riyo Chuchi is wheeled up to his bedside and he finds himself pulling his blanket up to his chin to hide his lack of limb. “Thank you,” she murmurs to the med droid as it exits. 

She has a bandage wrapped around her head and her hair is flat and dull, hanging limply at her shoulders. Her golden eyes don’t even sparkle with joy like they did in his dream. He wishes he would have never woken up. He would give anything, his left arm perhaps, to never have to wake from wherever he was. Where he could love her endlessly and never worry about anything but which spot on her he would kiss next. 

The silence is thick between them but, like usual, it is her that breaks it first. “How are your injuries?”

“I’m alive,” he croaks, “and yours?” 

“Concussion. Laceration on my temple. Broken wrist and torn tendons in my ankles. I’m expected to make a full recovery.”

He looks away. He can’t look at her; not when it was his fault. 

She rests a hand on his bed, searching for one to hold and his stomach drops when she grabs nothing but blankets. Her eyes snap up, but he is looking pointedly at the bedside table. “Fox,” she breathes. “Fox look at me.”

Begrudgingly, he does. 

“I understand,” he begins before she gets the chance. “If you… If you don’t want me anymore.” He looks away once more, investigating the stitching on the medbay blanket. 

“Fox.”

He doesn’t look up. He can hear the words; he can hear the rejection. 

“Fox, I meant it when I said I love you.”

His head snaps up to meet her gaze. “I… I’m not even  _ whole  _ anymore.”

“Then I will love you more to make up for the missing pieces.” She slowly pulls away the blanket and rests a gentle hand on his stump. “But I need you to know that you are  _ not _ broken. You are not any less than you were before the accident and I am  _ not  _ any less in love with you.”

Against his will, tears spring to his eyes. “Riyo… I-”

“And if they try to decommission you because of this, I will fight off entire legions of those creepy long-necks.” 

He snorts a wet laugh. “That’s my Riyo.”

Hissing at her injured ankles, she pushes herself up and onto his cot. With his hand, his  _ only _ hand, he helps her up and when she is settled, he brushes his thumb across her cheeks. “You saved my life,” he whispers. 

“I distinctly remember  _ you  _ pushing  _ me _ away from an explosion.”

“No… when I got knocked out. I was dying. It was just you and me in a room, in bed together. You… you told me to wake up. You saved me.”

She kisses him deeply and in his mind they are far away from here. They are someplace warm. The sun is shining through the window and there is no war. Just peace. 

“Because I love you, Fox. And I will love you until the end of my days, no matter what.”

He looks into her golden eyes and sees the sun dancing in her irises. “I love you,” he whispers and kisses her again. “I love you.” He peppers her with another kiss. “I love you.”

Before long she is giggling and settling further into his side. He runs his hand through her hair until he hears her breathing even out. To the sounds of machines whirling and her soft snoring, he, too, drifts off. 

And they sleep together, with their legs and souls intertwined and no hope of ever becoming untangled. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!!
> 
> Tumblr: amukmuk


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